Category Archives: Competitions

Post navigation

The tenth annual award ceremony for the City of Edinburgh Council creative writing competition, open to all P4 – P7 pupils in Edinburgh, took place in the Central Reference Library on the 30th November. The event was hosted by Councillor Alison Dickie, Vice-Convener of Education, Children and Families and was attended by the 20 finalists along with their families and teachers.

Green Pencil Award Finalists

The Green Pencil Award aims to promote literacy, in particular reading and creative writing. It also helps raise awareness and encourages learning about important environmental topics. This year’s theme was ’Edinburgh’s Natural Heritage’ and over 800 entries were received from P4-7 pupils across the city on a range of topics from Edinburgh Castle to Portobello Beach.

Prizes were donated by our sponsors, including the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Scottish Book Trust, Dynamic Earth, National Trust for Scotland, Royal Scottish Zoological Society and Camera Obscura.

This year’s overall winner was Chrissie Clark from Edinburgh Academy for her poem ‘The Three Bridges’.

The judges commented, “What really struck us was the topical subject of Chrissie’s poem. Some of us may have walked across the Queensferry Crossing in its inaugural weekend, and been amazed by the wonderful feat of engineering that it represents, and the beautiful sight of the three bridges. Chrissie cleverly managed to weave in her own, very personal impression of the bridges, and rounded off a nicely structured piece of work with a satisfying and humorous conclusion”.

All the winning entries are published in a brochure which will sent to all schools who took part.

The Summer Reading Challenge has arrived! The challenge for children aged 5-12 is to read six books over the school holidays. The theme is Animal Agents – who are investigating strange goings on in the library! Children collect stickers as they go and help crime busting creatures solve the clues to reveal the mystery!

On successfully completing the challenge, children receive a certificate and a gold medal!! There are also some excellent prizes on up for grabs this year including Dynamic Earth family passes, astronomy evenings at the Royal Observatory and Edinburgh Leisure passes, with more to be confirmed.

Pop into your local library and sign up to join in the fun. Borrow some animal agents themed books whilst you are there or any book you like. You can also find out what children’s activities will be taking place over the summer in your library whilst you are there. As well as borrowing books from the library you can even download some of our children’s ebooks and audiobooks to join in with the fun. Check out our Summer Reading Challenge collection on our OverDrive Kids site.

The Animal Agents adventure starts on the 23 June and runs until 27 August.

1987 was a huge year for readers everywhere. It was the year that John Rebus first sprang to life on the page of Ian Rankin’s novel Knots and Crosses. Smoking and drinking too much and firmly his own man, he was already the dedicated, irrepressible, canny detective we all love today.

Ian Rankin

Thirty years later, John Rebus is one of the best loved detectives out there, still working cases in Edinburgh and still as alive on the page as ever. The new Rebus story Rather be the Devil is out now in paperback.

Rebus Fest is your chance to celebrate Rebus, and enjoy the music, art, writing and yes, booze, that has both inspired, and been inspired by, the iconic detective. Rebus Fest events will be held across Edinburgh from 30 June to 2 July 2017. Find out more and buy tickets here http://www.ianrankin.net/rebusfest.

Tickets are selling fast, with some events already sold out, so we have a library competition for you to win the chance to sample the very essence of Rebus.

Take part to win a pair of tickets to an exclusive Highland Park WhiskyTasting on Saturday 1 July at 1.30 at the Caledonian Hotel, a well-known Edinburgh (and Rebus) landmark). Hosted by Martin Markvardsen, the brand’s Senior Brand Ambassador, he will walk you through why Highland Park stands apart from other single malt Scotch whiskies and why Rebus is a fan. The tasting will include 4 special Highland Park whiskies including Highland Park Rebus30, 10 Year Old.

The winner, along with five lucky runners up will receive a paperback copy of the new Rebus novel Rather be the Devil.

To enter the competition simply tell us – In which Scottish city does John Rebus live and work ?
1. Glasgow
2. Aberdeen
3. Edinburgh

Email you entry to informationdigital@edinburgh.gov.uk by 12 noon on 23 June.

You can catch up with some of John Rebus’s earlier cases in this library selection of the best of Edinburgh crime fiction

Like this:

We ran not one, but two competitions as part of our Digital Reading Week at the beginning of November! The lucky winner of our OverDrive competition was Sally Butler. Sally borrowed some ebooks to go on holiday and came home to find that she was the recipient of a shiny new Fire Tablet.

It was great to hear that Sally has been using our OverDrive service since its inception in 2010 finding it especially useful when travelling. The beauty of it is that you can checkout new titles from anywhere whether you are in the South of France or the doctors waiting room!

New titles are added to OverDrive every two weeks meaning there is always something new to check out. If you don’t find anything you fancy remember that users can always recommend titles and authors using our Book Recommendation Form.

Last week the Central Library hosted this year’s Green Pencil Award Ceremony when 20 finalists, their friends and families and other special guests came to the awards ceremony held in the Reference Library on Thursday 24th of November. Councillor Richard Lewis attended to hand out the prizes.

This year the theme was ‘Scotland’s Glorious Gardens’, Edinburgh school pupils in the P4 to P7 age range were inspired by the many gardens, parks and green spaces that we are lucky enough to have, and to enjoy using, here in the City.

The Award aims to promote literacy, in particular reading and creative writing and firing the imagination. It also helps raise awareness and encourages learning about nature and other important environmental topics.

Rose Kinsler from Sciennes Primary reads her entry to the crowd

This is the ninth year the competition has run. This year’s competition was launched by the author Vivian French on September 1st at Central Children’s Library and Princes Street Gardens with pupils from Preston Street Primary School.

The Green Pencil Award

The night was a great success and we very much look forward to next year’s competition.

Today is the third annual International Read an eBook Day and you’re all invited to take part! Read an eBook Day is a yearly celebration of modern story telling. It’s a day dedicated to promoting the convenience, capability and excitement that digital reading provides.

OverDrive, our eBook supplier, are encouraging people to use the hashtag #eBookLove today on social media to be entered into the chance of winning a free tablet.

Children, who must be p4 to p7, can write a poem or story, which could focus on anything from a memorable visit to a Scottish garden like the Royal Botanic Gardens or a creative depiction of what the ideal Scottish garden would look and smell like.

Culture Convener, Councillor Richard Lewis, said: “This is a popular and engaging competition for budding writers across the city, and always produces many creative and compelling entries from young people.

This year’s theme should also inspire more visits to our fantastic range of parks and green spaces so I look forward to reading the creative writing to result from it.”